DeLaney has served as an advocate for businesses and individuals in matters ranging from business disputes to estate litigation, election law and First Amendment litigation. DeLaney represented the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in an arbitration hearing under the Dayton Peace Accords. He speaks Russian fluently.

DeLaney currently serves as a member of the Education Committee as well as the Ways and Means Committee. He is also an alternate member of the Budget Committee as well as serving as the Assistant Democratic Caucus Chair.

DeLaney was the founding lawyer for Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc., which is now an international organization with thousands of members. He recently retired as a partner in the law firm of DeLaney and DeLaney, where he worked with his wife, Ann, and his daughter, Kathleen. For several years, he was an adjunct faculty member at Indiana University School of Law in Bloomington.

DeLaney has been active in his community. He served former Governor Evan Bayh as chair of the Indiana Development Finance Authority from 1990 to 1996. He has been a member of the Indianapolis Police Merit Board and president of the St. Thomas Aquinas Parish Council, where the family has been a member for more than 40 years. He served the Indianapolis Bar Association on its Judicial Evaluation Committee.

He has been an election monitor for the International Republican Institute in Russia. For some 25 years, DeLaney has trained both groups and individuals in the skills of being an advocate. His experience has been recognized by the Best Lawyers in America and the Indiana Super Lawyers.

DeLaney and Ann married in 1967 and have been blessed with three adult children- Kathleen, with whom they practiced law; Jennifer, a physician in St. Louis; and Tim, who is a partner at an Indianapolis law firm. They have 11 active grandchildren.